Website Development
Extension Goes National — and Online
Since they were established in the mid-19th century, land-grant universities have served a central role in research, teaching and economic development in their home states, with a mission to support local agriculture, the life sciences and entrepreneurship. Beyond the classroom and out among the fields, much of the institutions’ outreach work falls on their cooperative extension programs — statewide networks of county offices that handle requests from residents, collect information and work with local communities to share the latest in university research.
For all their continued usefulness today — and not only in rural areas — state extension initiatives still operate on that 19th-century local and state model. But maybe not for long. In February, a nationwide consortium of land-grant universities announced the public launch of eXtension, a Web site chock full of the sort of advice, research and information that people traditionally looked to their local centers to provide. If farming and agriculture as a whole were akin to the medical profession, this would be its WebMD.
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